The Fire

Here you are
as the day settles
and the small sounds magnify
the breathing of the whole earth slows
and the soup of the night simmers.

You gaze at me like a wild animal
out there in your ice and storms,
growling at me to move me
half in fear, half in threat
all combined to lay doubt
like blame.

You hang around like a wolf
drawn and repelled by the fire
that I have discovered,
that battles your cold
and instinctual desires,
and I see your eyes even
when I am not looking
reflected in the dark lush spaces
of infinity

You call me.
We make such a scene
and we scheme to simultaneously recognize
and ignore the other.
When shall we capitulate?
When the snows of something
greater bowl us under?
I do not think you can know.

Again, I shall scream at you
and tend to my fire
as it tends me.

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